The biggest day of the year for Hip Hop has arrived as three of Hip Hop's biggest names debut their new albums today. J. Cole, Kanye West, and Mac Miller have all been in preparation for months working on their most prized possessions, their new albums. As fans have waited patiently for these pieces of tangible art that each of these artists created for our listening desires, we did get a little preview as each of them gave us a stream of their new works before the actual release date of today. With each of the three artists having various promotion hues and taking different approaches to push their albums, some more quiet and designated while others were full steam ahead with letting it be known June 18th was the day.
J Cole had originally pushed his album back from a January 28th release to a June 25th release, that was until Kanye West announced that his album would be released "June Eighteen" in a cryptic tweet via Twitter. Cole had decided that he also wanted his album to be released June 18th as well due to him being a competitor saying
"I'm not going to sit here... I worked too hard to come a week later after Kanye West drops an amazing album. It'd be like, Oh and J.Cole dropped too, a week later. Nah. I'm going to go see him on that date. He's the greatest. So it's like, I'm a competitor by nature so it was instant, it wasn't even a thought." After acknowledging a leak of his new album had taken place and not ignoring the fact that sorts had occurred J. Cole became an even more likable artist by streaming his album but still telling listeners to purchase it on June 18th. The 16-track standard version has no guest rap appearances just as Cole himself once stated but the 21-track deluxe effort hosts 5 new bonus tracks including "New York Times" feat. 50Cent, "Miss America", "Sparks Will Fly" feat. Jhené Aiko, "Is She Gon Pop" and "Ni**az Know". The five bonus tracks on the
Born Sinner deluxe edition will also serve as the third part of the
Truly Yours EP series. The question now is will J. Cole's album clinch the number one spot after the competitive effort the masterpiece has put forth, cause by the looks and feel of things it is appearing to be a Cole Summer.
Kanye made some what of a public service announcement with his mysterious "June Eighteen" tweet via Twitter that had people assuming it could be one of two things, the day his unborn child was due or the day his album was being released. The people who guessed the new album releasing was correct as the G.O.O.D. Music boss' sixth solo album Yeezus would officially arrive today "June Eighteen". The simplistic and almost non packaged 10 track effort hosts features from Kanye's former G.O.O.D. Music artist Kid Cudi, Chief Keef, Justin Vernon, King L, Charlie Wilson, and Frank Ocean. As there are no radio chummy singles from the album it does contain the two pre-released tracks "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves" which features Channel Orange singer Frank Ocean. There was highly publicized promo for the including various video projections in numerous cities throughout the world and televised performances, as Kanye took the stage of Saturday Night Live less than a month before the album release. The musical protege's project has been predicted to sell 500,000 plus units during its first week even going up against J. Cole's Born Sinner and Mac Miller's Watching Movies with the Sound Off.
Mac Miller delivers his new album
Watching Movies with the Sound Off on what should be called "The Day of Hip Hop" as his albums release coincides with that of J. Cole and Kanye West's albums. The Jewish Pittsburgh native gives us something more than his mixtapes and his first debut album with his new album where he stays himself the wild child kid that he has always been, but gives us a look at something more personal by lyricizing his struggle with fame. Mac's 19-track effort enlists features from Ab-Soul, Earl Sweatshirt, Niki Randa, Action Bronson, Loaded Lux, Schoolboy Q, and Jay Electronica. The rapper also produced majority of the album under his alias name Larry Fisherman along with Pharrell Williams, Diplo, Tyler The Creator, Chuck Inglish, Flying Lotus, Clams Casino, and The Alchemist. Though his album has not been as talked about as
Born Sinner or
Yeezus you can bet that Mac still has popularity and favor in his court when it comes to his latest effort. He may be looked at as the underdog but Mac Miller definitely contributes to helping make today "The Day of Hip Hop" along with J. Cole and Kanye West. If it were not for Mac the other two would remain just two Hip Hop artists battling for the 1 and 2 spots in the Hip Hop world, but because there is a Mac Miller there will now be a spot 1, 2, and 3 on the charts for Hip Hop.
XO
